Hanako Norene's Past

Chapter Seven

The next day, the captain marched in and blew a really loud whistle, which definitely woke me up. Cupping my hands over my ears, I looked up at the ceiling in frustration before slipping out of bed, quickly changing out of my pajamas into my uniform. Grabbing a pillow, I stomped out into the hallway, raising it up like I was about to hit someone. "OKAY. Whoever the hell blew that whistle is going t-" I cut myself off when I saw it was the captain with the whistle. My face flushed red and I quickly tossed the pillow back into my cabin, my arms behind my back as I tried to smile innocently to distract the captain. I watched her glare at me for a moment before she walked in. I took a small breath before walking after the other cadets. When all the cadets arrived, they lined up. As usual, I stood beside Lone and some other cadet who kept rambling about how he just wanted to leave because his feet were aching. If you can't even handle standing up for more than 15 minutes, why the hell are you here? Are you hoping you will just float your way through life against these monsters? I resisted the urge to say this out loud, as I knew it would start something. It was way too early in the morning for commotion like that. I turned my focus back towards the captain as she started to explain what the training exercise would be for today - hand to hand combat. The captain then started to hand out wooden daggers to every other cadet. I noticed that Lone received one of the wooden daggers, and started to think about how partners would be decided. Perfect timing I suppose, because the captain was just about to get to that part. "The cadets that do not have wooden knives will be picking a partner out of the ones that do." I sighed in relief before turning towards Lone, a small smile on my face. "Hey, do you want to be partners, Lone?" I asked while tilting my head in curiosity. Lone looked down at me, and I noticed that he was trying to hide a smile. It wasn't that easy to miss. "Sure, ok." This answer made me smile a little more. "Okay, let's get away from the other cadets though so we don't kill one another."

I turned and guided Lone to another part of the wall, not too close to the edge, and not too close to other pairs of cadets. Some of those other fights were getting a little bloody, at least from what I could see. "Wait, kill each other? With wooden knives? Hanako, that's not possible.. Besides, I wouldn't do that to you." It took me a moment to realize what he meant. Shaking my head, I turned towards him and shrugged. "I guess I was just exaggerating. I don't know... but I think that fall off this wall could kill you.." I spoke as I leaned to the left, looking down at the city below. "Yeah.. yeah that would kill someone.." I straightened my posture then looked up at Lone when he spoke again. I noticed that he shuddered as he spoke. "Dammit Hanako...now that's all I'll be thinking about..." I shifted a little uneasily, noticing my mistake. "Sorry about that.. just sayin'..." I took a few steps back before raising my arms up, changing my stance a little bit to take a fighting one. "You ready?" I watched Lone adopt the traditional fighting stance of the MP. "Right... I'll try not to get lost in your eyes." My cheeks turned a little pink when I heard this and I rose my head, looking up at him. "U-uhm... I don't know what way to take that... Hopefully I won't take that the wrong way. If they distract you though I can just look away a lot when I'm fighting you, it wouldn't really be an issue.. most of the time..." Uh... that was a joke... I was trying to compliment you." He laughed a little nervously, which I personally found a little adorable. I shook my head to clear my thoughts before looking back up at him. "Oh.. Sorry about that, I'm not really used to compliments. So thank you.." I smiled a little bit before I quickly switched back to the training subject. "Alright, do you want to strike first?" "Uh.." He looked around nervously for a moment. "I guess I could.." I laughed a little bit, tilting my head in curiosity as I spoke. "Are you nervous about fighting? It's just training, don't worry so much. I'll be easy with you." "That's uh...that's not what I'm worried about...I mean, if you beat me, I wouldn't mind that much...but what if I hurt you? Like...you know, on accident. If I get out of control or something?" I remained silent for a moment before sighing and looking up at him.